\n
![](\"https:\/\/gamasutra.com\/blogs\/edit\/img\/portrait\/6569\/portrait.jpg\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are a few things I see taking place in the murky marketing world supporting video games and companies near the video game industry in 2020.<\/p>\n
This has been a thorn in everyone\u2019s side as more and more micro- (and macro-) influencers are on the rise.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard for small businesses and small devs to track results. It\u2019s hard for big devs and businesses to not get burned from their relationships.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s going to be more scrutiny here, legally and ad-spend-wise, when it comes to influencers in 2020. The savvy influencers are going to be the ones who can provide an inquiring business\/potential partner with data and tracking information on their direct impact.<\/p>\n
A media kit is a must if you\u2019re going to work with an influencer. Who\u2019s their primary audience and what\u2019s their reach? But now businesses need more or they\u2019re going to waste too many dollars across too many self-proclaimed influencers.<\/p>\n
Advice from Exothermic<\/em>: If you\u2019re a business, make sure you get metrics attached to your influencers so you know what you\u2019re getting from your ad spend there. If you\u2019re an influencer, you better up your game and differentiate yourself on the accountability front.<\/p>\n Fragmentation is finally hitting the relatively peaceful PC industry compared to the years it\u2019s been plaguing the console world. It\u2019s not new. But now the digital-only devs, who are typically the smaller ones, will have more of a challenge of optimizing a game for multiple channels (or finding partners who can port for them).<\/p>\n Marketing is traditionally made up of the four P\u2019s \u2013 price, place, product and promotion. Most people think of promotion as the only relevant marketing piece. But place, in this instance \u2013 your distribution channels, is still a marketing question for devs to consider when it comes to where people will find their game.<\/p>\n Advice from Exothermic:\u00a0<\/em>For the smaller devs, do your research. Figure out who your audience actually is and where they are \u2013 it doesn\u2019t have to be super detailed research but some cursory information is a must now that there\u2019s more players in the field. Mobile devs have done this already with the fragmented stores and fragmented OS (Android vs. iOS vs. Windows vs. others), console devs have done this already for years \u2013 smaller indie devs will need to be more focused and learn from those lessons in other areas.<\/p>\n This is more of a hope than a prediction but as there are more stories on Gamasutra and other sites like Medium with behind-the-scenes data on what performance truly looks like for small (and big) devs, I hope there are more realistic expectations for game launches. More info = more informed decisions, yeah?<\/p>\n A few good ones to check out:<\/p>\n Advice from Exothermic<\/em>: Use metrics and learn from others to be realistic with your game launches and your marketing efforts. Not every game is going to have the impact of\u00a0Untitled Goose Game<\/a>, friends.<\/p>\n Seems obvious to me but a digital spend has more direct results and a more solid ROI. TV is too mass-market and there\u2019s too much loss. Devs can\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n Not to mention that people are cutting the cord more than ever before.<\/p>\n That being said, video itself will continue being super importantly for the games industry. Especially in the form of trailers, gifs, and live-streaming.<\/p>\n Advice from Exothermic<\/em>: Make sure you\u2019ve got a good relationship with a videographer either on your team or externally. Video is going to keep being important.<\/p>\n Sony is\u00a0skipping E3<\/a>\u00a0for the second year. More and more publishers are doing their own events, like Blizzard\u2019s\u00a0BlizzCon<\/a>. Or reaching their audience directly on a regular basis, like Nintendo\u2019s\u00a0Nintendo Direct broadcasts<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s only a matter of time before we have some sort of EpicCon here in NC\u2026<\/p>\n After the\u00a0whole journalist-leakage situation<\/a>\u00a0and the event\u00a0going public in 2017<\/a>, I\u2019m personally feeling a pretty solid good riddance to bad rubbish vibe.<\/p>\n Advice from Exothermic:\u00a0<\/em>Conferences aren\u2019t as critical as they used to be for lead-gen and B2B or B2C presence. Technology is enabling people to have video calls, livestreams, and more without dropping thousands on flights, hotels and all that jazz. Get creative (and thoughtful) without your outreach and don\u2019t just assume that E3, GDC and Gamescom are required to attend anymore.<\/p>\n We\u2019re starting to see a trend back to transmedia again as IP is the focus with supplemental, original content to support it.\u00a0As games are perpetually being updated, it becomes more important to support fewer games for longer periods of time and invest more time, money, and marketing dollars in \u2019em. And then the games spread to other areas like books\/comics (think:\u00a0Overwatch<\/a>), movies (think:\u00a0WoW<\/a>), music (think:\u00a0LoL<\/a>), and more.<\/p>\n Advice from Exothermic<\/em>: It\u2019s going to be easy to lose money here if you\u2019re a smaller organization. If you do a transmedia play with your IP, make sure you\u2019re thoughtful about how much it\u2019ll cost to maintain that as another channel.<\/p>\n This is a big one at Exothermic as we\u2019re\u00a0anti-retargeting<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0anti-list purchasing<\/a>. (and\u00a0gaslighting<\/a>, too)<\/p>\n Between GDPR, CCPA and a whole slew of other acronyms, privacy pushes are going to impact marketing strategies more in 2020. Just within the first month of 2020, we\u2019ve already seen Verizon pretending to offer a\u00a0\u201cno-tracking\u201d search engine<\/a>, the FTC\u00a0investigating ad blockers<\/a>, a report on\u00a0dating and fertility apps selling data<\/a>\u00a0and more. Also I found\u00a0this PDF<\/a>\u00a0for the first time and fell in love with it.<\/p>\n People are starting to realize just how much their data has been abused previously. It\u2019s about damn time.<\/p>\n Advice from Exothermic:\u00a0<\/em>Be sensitive of what data you\u2019re collecting, how you\u2019re storing and what you do with it, people.<\/p>\n Due to Alexa and Google Home and podcasts \u2013 expect voice marketing to become more of a thing. Voice search is going to be a bigger thing. Hey google,\u00a0what\u2019s a Fortnite<\/a>? What\u2019s the answer going to be? Is it going to be the definition of a fortnight or is Epic going to pony up some cash to own that answer?<\/p>\n Advice from Exothermic:<\/em>\u00a0If it\u2019s relevant, consider adding voice search as a channel to your marketing outreach. It\u2019s still pretty new but a lot of lessons from radio marketing will transfer over to this arena.<\/p>\n This prediction is basically an excuse to post a link to one of my favorite movies of all time:<\/p>\nDistribution strategy becomes more important<\/h3>\n
More realistic expectations and niche games<\/h3>\n
Less TV media spend, more digital spend<\/h3>\n
The decline of E3<\/h3>\n
Transmedia<\/h3>\n
Privacy<\/h3>\n
Voice content<\/h3>\n
Politics<\/h3>\n